It seems that the wheel craze is just as rampant there as it is in our
own fair city of New York, but that the facilities for owning machines
are not as great there as here.

To overcome this, a bright-minded individual has invented a new device,
which is certainly the most ingenious we have yet heard of.

It is a "nickel-in-the-slot" bicycle, and probably works somewhat on the
principle of the "quarter-in-the-slot" gas-meter, which for every
twenty-five cents put in, releases just that coin's worth of gas to
illuminate your house.

The bicycle, however, is arranged in such a manner that for every
five-cent piece dropped in the slot it will run exactly five miles.

There is not the slightest fear of the rider forgetting to renew the
nickel when he has ridden his five cents' worth; nor is there any chance
of his cheating the wheel out of an extra mile--or half inch, for the
matter of that.

When the end of the five miles is reached the honest wheel stops dead.
Whether it throws its rider over its head or not is a matter of no
moment to it. It stops then and there, and refuses to move another foot
until it is re-fed with a fresh nickel. Then it will bound along again
as peacefully as before.

The story does not say whether a device in the form of a small red flag
shoots out from any portion of the wheel to give a warning when the next
"lap's" rent is due. But without some such plan we should doubt whether